SEWA / IITB - NPEI Research Proposal

Job Description for SEWA/IITB-NPEI Research Proposal for "Formalizing the Informal: A Deep Dive into Indias Evolving Labor Landscape":

Informal workers in India

Informal workers comprise a majority of the workforce in India. This holds even for the non-farm sector of the Indian economy. Informal workers here include small own account producers, casually employed wage workers, as well as wage workers engaged on an informal basis by enterprises in the organized segment of the economy. Informal workers

...read more

on the average earn lower wages, experience greater precarity such as discontinuity and disruptions in work and highly variable earnings, work under hazardous conditions, are exposed to higher market risk, have nil or inadequate social protection and face diverse decent work deficits.

read less

The Indian economy has displayed considerable dynamism over the past three decades, with an acceleration of growth, the emergence of a high-value services sector that is in parts globally
competitive, and deepening sophistication in its manufacturing. Yet the informal segment of the economy remains significant, settled in its low-level equilibrium. Beneath this resilience , there is considerable churn. New forms of enterprises (such as platform based mobility, delivery and service provision) and financing (venture and early-stage capital) have emerged; workers struggles are redefining the workers movement in response to shifts in the economy and changing workplace arrangements; the struggles of workers and small producers induce policy shifts with respect to regulation and social protection; small producers seek solutions to raise productivity and incomes; government policies redirect fiscal, credit and infrastructure flows and redesign regulations and trade conditions in favor of specific sectors, scale and enterprises. Additionally, there are global shifts, including climate change, changes in the nature of global supply chains and evolution of technology.

There is need to understand how these tendencies contribute to or take away from formalising the informal. We interpret the transition towards the formal as any change in conditions that contributes to greater agency and dignity to the informal worker, increases productivity together with incomes/wages, raises efficiency and market power for small producers, reduces risk and precarity, improves working conditions and reduces exposure to hazards, provides social security for workers or sustains the natural resource base for small producers.

Many of these changes stem from purposive action by workers, governments and enterprises. Of specific interest here are:

This is a call for proposals from SEWA/New Political Economy Initiative (IITB) to conduct research on any of the above three distinct, though interrelated themes. The research needs to be aimed at India s experience in the past 25 years. On Industrial Policy, this call invites studies that focus on a specific or a cluster of related economic sectors.

Proposals with a field research element will be preferred. Where relevant, the proposals must include a budget for the field research component.

There is provision for financial support for approved research projects. Researchers will be paid an honorarium and the exact figure will be determined based on the proposal and the researcher s resume. Expenses on field visits for research will be reimbursed within a reasonable limit and based on actuals.

Researchers with a Masters degree with at least three years research experience or a PhDa are eligible to apply.